FRENCH HISTORY 1600-1605
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The native peoples of America are considered a wild and savage people.
These Indians have daily baths, while Europeans consider bathing more than once a year, a
heathenish practice.
All Europeans consider slave trading a civilized practice.
1540
The French, in 1687, claim that Jean Francois de la Rocque, Sieur de Roberval (1500-1560) took possession of the Bay of the North (Hudson Bay) for France this year. Jean Alfonse of Saintonge explored the coastline of Labrador. Roberval became Lieutenant General of Canada, despite being a Protestant convert. He commanded Jacques Cartier.
Map maker, Sebastian Munster, named Canada as Francisca and assumed the Bay of the North (Hudson Bay) extended down to the Carolinas based upon false information supplied by Verrazzano (1524). Basque fishermen worked the Strait of Belle Isle until 1610, hunting the boehead and right whales that migrated past Labrador and Newfoundland. A village at Red Bay, Labrador, containing nearly a thousand men, rendered the whales blubber into oil during the five month summer season. Most men, however, would winter back in Europe. The French and English would later consider this age-old universal concept of a different winter, and summer homes site a heathen practice.
A Portuguese agent claimed that many thousands of animal skins are being brought to France from the New World.
1541
The Huguenots made an abortive colonization attempt this year but abandoned the venture in 1542. Jean Francois de LeRocque de Roberval (1500-1560) was commissioned to establish a colony in New France and to construct churches and fortified towns. Jacques Cartier is employed as a guide but returned to France from Newfoundland dispite Roberval's orders. Roberval established his colony at Charlesbourg-Royal on Cape-Rouge, where Jacques Cartier had previously built a fort. The first New France colony was named France Roy and the river (St. Lawrence) was named France Prime. They ventured to Montreal and built a strong house on river Sinagua (Saguenay River). Basque fishermen from Pyreness had built drying racks for their cod catch at the mouth of the Saguenay River. Roberval was excessively cruel, withholding food and water if his men didn't work to his satisfaction. If someone fainted he was immediately punished. Lashes were dispensed frequently. One day six workers were hung. One was isolated on an island with his feet chained. Most of his colony was ex-convicts. The colony was abandoned in 1542.
It is noteworthy that Basque or Euskara predates the Celts and is unrelated to any other language in the world. Port aux Basques, Newfoundland speak of their presence as does Isles-aux-Basques that are islets where the Basques whalers put ashore to render blubber into oil for shipment back to Spain. The Basque word for god is Jinkoa, is a very ancient word with no known resembling word in the world.
Martin de Artalequ's San Salvador of 100 tons set sail for Terranova.
Angel de Villagane, governor of Spanish Florida ordered Antoinio Velazquez to sail north with provisions for the Spanish colony of Santa Elena on the South Carolina coast, he was blown off course and ended up in Chesapeake Bay off the coast of Maryland/Virginia. Quejo had visited the area earlier in 1521.
January 15: Jean Francois de la Rocque de Roberval (1500-1560) is appointed the first Viceroy of Canada, Newfoundland and Labrador with little regard to the Spanish claim of the 1494 Treaty of Tordesillas.
April: Martin de Artalequ records he talked to Cartier's men near Spear Island, not far from St. John's where he had a barrel of cider and a cask of ship's biscuit taken from him by Roberval's men.
May 23: Jacques Cartier (1491-1557) left St. Malo with five ships and 1,500 men, arriving Stadacona, Quebec August 3. The Iroquois were not happy with the French as they did not return the kidnapped Iroquois from the last expedition.
October 17: Francis I appointed Roberval (1500-1560) as the superior over Cartier (1491-1557). This would later infuriate Cartier.
1542
Marguerite de La Rocque co-seigneuress of Pointpoint, a close relative of Sieur de Roberval (1500-1560), accompanied him on this years voyage to Canada. Shocked by Marguerite taking a lover, Roberval set her ashore of Ile des Demons in the Saint Lawrence River with her lover and a servant girl. The young man, the servant girl and Marguerite's child which was born on the island, died. Marguerite managed to survive and was rescued two years five month later by French fisherman. This would represent the first recorded Country Marriage and the birth of the first European child in New France (Canada).
Hurtleberry pie is introduced into Newfoundland that is made from blueberries, blackberries, bilberries and huckleberries. The term originated about 1450.
Michel Gaillon, a companion of Jean Francois de la Rocque de Roberval (1500-1560), was hanged at Cap Rouge (Charlesburg Royal) making him the first Canadian to be executed.
April 16: Jean Francois de la Rocque de Roberval (1500-1560) sailed from La Rochelle, France with three ships and 200 convicts for America to create a French settlement.
June 8: Jean Francois de la Rocque de Roberval (1500-1560) encountered Jacques Cartier (1491-1557) at St. John's Newfoundland and ordered Cartier to return to Canada. Cartier refused this direct order from his superior. Jacques Cartier snuck off in the night, fully aware that Roberval could have him executed (hanged) as a traitor.
July: Jean Francois de la Rocque de Roberval (1500-1560) reached Cartier's settlement at Cap Rouge and renamed it France Royal. Michel Gaillon was hanged for theft at France Royal, alias Cap Rouge, Quebec. Roberval lost 50 men to scurvy, indicating that Cartier had not told him of the Indian method to avoid this ailment. This first attempt to start a colony failed. It is noteworthy that competent sailors from Europe were well aware of scurvy and usually gathered the herb alexanders to cure the ailment. This herb was in use since 1 A.D. by the Romans to prevent scurvy.
September: Newfoundland sailors (Robert Lefand) reported that Jacques Cartier and Sieur de Roberval (1500-1560), after one year with three ships, had accumulated eleven barrels of gold ore and a quantity of precious stones, rubies and diamonds. This is likely the source for the current saying: false as a diamond of Canada. The gold turned out to be pyrite and the diamonds quartz. It is noteworthy that diamonds would later be discovered in Canada in the twentieth century.
September 19: Jean Francois de la Rocque de Roberval (1500-1560) pardoned Aussillon de Sauverterre.
1543
Jean Francois de la Rocque de Roberval (1500-1560) wintered at France Royal (Cap Rouge, Quebec) where 60 men died. Several insubordinate prisoner colonists were hung, while others were imprisoned.
June 6: After an unsuccessful trip to explore the Saguenay, the Roberval settlement is abandoned and the colonist prisoners return to France.
1544
Tadoussac, Quebec, at the mouth of the Saguenay River on the St. Lawrence River, is established this year by the Basque. Tadoussac is an ancient Native trading center and was likely visited by many traders before the Basque made this a wintering trading and fish processing site.
1545
A Frenchman wrote the people of Norumbega (Penobscot River in Maine), are docile, friendly and peaceful, the land overflows with every kind of fruit, wholesome orange, almonds and many sweet smelling trees. Another writer said the people were tall and fair, spoke words that sounded like Latin, and worshiped the sun.
1546
The word boucaner by the French means to dry and smoke meat or fish. They learned this new way of cooking from the Tupi People of the Amazon River in South America.
1554
Joanes de Segura records his venture to the Labrador coast between the Pinware River and Red Bay. Canada was known as Terranova or Terre Neuve by the French.
April: Three Spanish ships, San Esteban, Espiritu Santo and Santa Maria de Yciar, stuffed to the gunwales with passengers and New World treasures departed Mexico. The were sailing from Veracruz, Santa Maria de Yeiar Espiritu Santo, and San Esteban bound for Havana then Spain. A storm blew they off course northward where they ran aground and were pounded to pieces near Padre Island, Texas. The captain in a small boat with some survivors returned to Mexico to alert officials of the disaster. The balance of survivors were eventually killed by the Indians. Within a few weeks a salvage ship arrived from Veracruiz to save about 50% of the cargo.
1555
Gaspard de Coligny, a French Huguenot, established a colony at the mouth of the Rio de Janeiro. It was captured by the Portuguese in 1560.
The Portuguese named the entire Maritime region of America as Baccalaos. The name survived in Baccaro, Acadia ( Nova Scotia) and Baccalieu Island, Newfoundland.
Richard Eden this year wrote the Decades of the Newe Worlde: "Cadot him selfe named those landes Baccalloas (Newfoundland), bycause that in the seas ther about he found so great mulitiude of certayne bigge fysshes...which th' inhabitantes caule Baccallaos." This entry is interesting in two ways, first it would suggest Baccallaos was first discovered by the Portuguese as this is their word for cod. Second said the inhabitants of Newfoundland called the Island Baccallaos, this suggests European 'settlements' preceded Cadot 1497, as the Indians are not likely to use a Portuguese word to describe their land. The word Baccallaos is traced back to earlier than 950 A.D. in Europe. That word or any possible derivation does not appear in Native American languages.
1556
The Spanish ship Ines de Soto was wrecked and sank west of Havania
1557
en young Brazilian Indians were purchased by Villegaignon, and sent to France as a gift to King Henry II. The king distributed them among the nobles of his court. Lescarbot
1560
Basques Agore's Chalupa is discovered in Red Bay, Labrador.
1562
A map by Italian Cartographer Faolo Forlani is believed to be the first known map to label Canada as Canada. It also records the Arctic Ocean, Laborador and Stadacone (later known as Quebec City) of the Iroquois confederation.
Discouraging reports of settlement prospects along the St. Lawrence River in
Canada discouraged a settlement by Jean Ribault. Jean Ribault, from
Dieppe, with 150 Huguenot colonists, set up a pillar (stone column) at the mouth
of the St. John River (below Jacksonville, Florida). He then established a
colony at Port Royal, South Carolina. Some of the colonists returned to
France in 1564. In 1565 the Spanish
captured the French settlement and put the people to the sword.
Ribault landed
at Parris Island, South Carolina and built a small fort (Charlesfort) to
defend it, leaving 27 men. He promised to return but is unable due
to the infighting between the Catholics and Huguenots. At Fort Charles,
a fire destroyed most of the provisions. The officer in charge hanged
one of the men; the crew mutinied, built their own ship, and sailed home
after some 11 months. The queen of France commanded Ribaut to bring back some of the
natives. In obedience to her command, Ribaut attempted to detain two of the natives on board ship to carry them to France, but the savages managed to escape and swam to shore
Charles IX of France gave his permission to allow Huguenots to settle Florida. His motives are highly suspect.
1563
Jacques le Moyne is in the Rene de Laudonniere party when they established a trading post at Parris Island, South Carolina named Fort Caroline. John Hawkins of Plymouth called at Fort Caroline and brought home a packet of tobacco.
1564
Rene de Laudonniere led more Huguenots to Florida, building Fort Caroline at the mouth of the St. John's River. Pedro Menendez de Aviles, of Spain, sent a fleet to destroy the French colony. He attacked the Fort and massacred the French defenders including Jean Ribault who arrived to help the colonists. Some suggest the destruction of the French colony by the Spanish was in 1565.
1565
In the Strait of Belle Isle, Labrador, a 300 ton Basque galleon, the San Juan, sank with 55,000 gallons of oil worth some six million dollars in present value. A Major Basque settlement existed at Tor Bay, Acadia (Nova Scotia) about this time. Another major Basque settlement was at Lesquemin (Les Escumins, Quebec).
St. Augustine, Florida is established this year by Pedro Menendez de Aviles..
1566
The Spanish discovered the French Charlesfort on Parris Island, South Carolina and built their own fort, San Felipe, right on top of Charlesfort. They didn't want to acknowledge claim to their capital.
Bolongnini Zaltieri named Nova Scotia and New Brunswick as Larcaida (Acadia).
A French ship in search of strange adventures sailed to Terra Nova (Labrador). They met with a man, his wife and child. The French attempted to capture the family. The man was shot in the body with an arrow and wounded on the side with a sword, but he fought with increased fury. Finally he was killed, but not before he had slain 12 French and Portuguese.
1568
November 8: An English pirate named John Hawkins marooned 114 sailors just north of Tampico, Mexico. The men, starving and unarmed, split into two groups, half headed south toward Tampico. They were captured and imprisoned in Mexico after suffering devastating Indian attacks. Some lost their lives in the Inquisition of 1575. The remainder headed north, David Ingram, Richard Twide and Richard Browne survived to reach safety and freedom in Acadia ( Nova Scotia). They estimate they traveled 2,000 miles, followed the coast to the Rio Grande then north through ZAlabama, and Georgia, passing near Florida's St. John River. The basically followed the Atlantic coast to New Brunswick, Canada. They traded pearls gathered along the way for passage on a French ship.
1569
The Mercator Map suggests that the Hudson Strait and Ungava Bay (Hudson Bay or Bay of the North) was explored some time prior to this date, likely by the Portuguese.
1570
The Basque brothers Joanes, d-1588 and Martin de Elcano made a number of fishing trips to Terranove and selling their codfish in the Azores. Many Basque fishermen reported they had spent some 20 years in Terranove waters.
Vicente Gonzalez sailed from Havana by way of Santa Elena (off South Carolina's Port Royal Sound) to deliver Spanish Jesuit missionaries to Chesapeake Bay. Florida governor Menendez de Aviles had asked the Jesuits to investigate the possibility of a route to the mountains and to China. Gonzalez sailed three times to resupply the Jesuits but they had fallen to Indian attacks.
Louis de Quiros and Juan Baptista de Segura, two Spanish Jesuits reported reaching the south western shore of Chesapeake Bay. Pedro Menendez de Aviles and his nephew Pedro Menendez Marquez surveyed Chesapeake Bay this year.
A French ship arrived Norumberga (Maine) and sailed up the Kennebec River to establish a fort and colony. In 1575 Father Andrew Thevet, a Franciscan returned to France to report the status of the colony. George Peckham and Thomas Gerard headed up the colony. In 1583 a supply ship with more colonists sunk with all hands trying to reach the colony. The ultimate fait of the colony is not known.
1571
The Jesuits Juan de Segura and others of the Spanish Mission of Chesapeake Bay are killed by Paquiquineo renamed Don Luis de Velasco or Don Luis and his followers. Why these friendly Natives killed the Jesuits is not recorded.
1576
Martin Frobisher (1539-1594), a fortune hunter, a sea dog and, as some claimed, an infamous, outrageous pirate, journeyed this year and in 1577 and 1578 to Canada, making land fall at Hall Island.
His second expedition ended in Hudson Strait, being blocked by ice. His encounter with the Eskimo led him to believe they have had previous encounters with Europeans, as the were very familiar with the ship and possessed European trade goods.
July 20: Martin Frobisher (1539-1594) named this area Resolution Island, off the southeastern end of Baffin Island as Queen Elisabeth's Forlande. Sailing north, he discovered a passage dividing Asia from America and named it Frobisher Strait (Frobisher Bay). Frobisher Bay would later be renamed Iqaluit; meaning the place where the fish are.
August 19: Martin Frobisher (1539-1594) traded with the Eskimo (Inuit) Natives for meat and furs and convinced the Eskimo to pilot them through Frobisher Strait. Frobisher sent five of his men among the natives to scope a rout to the west, and they disappeared.
October 9: Martin Frobisher (1539-1594) the pirate departed for England with samples of iron pyrite, believing them to be gold. He returned with a captive Eskimo, complete with kayak, but the Eskimo, he believed, had made off with five of Frobisher's men and a boat.
1577
Martin Frobisher (1539-1594) returned to Canada in search of gold with fifteen ships and 400 men, and entered into war with the Eskimo, but this time Frobisher is shot in the buttocks, likely fleeing from the Eskimo. Frobisher ambushed a number of Eskimo, taking one or two captive, but others jumped into the sea rather than being taken. A mother and wounded child were taken as slaves to England. The captured slaves died about a month after landing in England on September 17, 1577.
A Basque fleet was frozen into a harbor in the Strait of Belle Isle, forcing the men to winter. This winter 540 men died despite lots of fish and oil..
1578
It is recorded that 150 French vessels per year are fishing and trading the New World. Spain has 300 vessels and the English 30-50 vessels fishing off Newfoundland. These numbers would significantly increase each year. Another tally records off the coast of Newfoundland 100 Spanish ships, 20 or 30 Biskaie ships, 50 from Portugal, 150 of French and Britons all catching cod.
Some claim that Martin Frobisher (1539-1594) erected the first permanent European building in America this year on Kodlumarn Island. This, however, excludes the Viking and Fishermen who have been here before him.
Marquis de la Roche Mesgoues (1540-1606) is appointed Viceroy of New France with authority to colonize the region.
There is a printed reference to Penguin Island, Newfoundland but this island was occupied by the auks not penguin.
May 31: Martin Frobisher (1539-1594) led a fleet of 15 ships to establish a settlement at Frobisher's Bay (Iqaluit) to mine gold.
June 30: Martin Frobisher (1539-1594) claimed Greenland for England, renaming it West England.
July 2: Martin Frobisher (1539-1594) sailed up the Mistaken Strait (Hudson Strait) and tried to reassemble his fleet. One ship was lost by crushing ice but the crew were rescued, and one ship deserted back to England.
July 24: Martin Frobisher's fleet gathered in Frobisher Bay (Igaluit) which he renamed Countess of Warwick Sound.
July 30: Martin Frobisher (1539-1594) found the Judith and Michael behind Anne Warwick Island (Kodlunarn Island), having been lost. The Reverend Robert Wolfal conducted the first Thanksgiving service in North America, with 100 men. George Best was the chronicler of this expedition and also conducted a Thanksgiving meal.
August 31: Martin Frobisher (1539-1594) set sail for England, and the other remaining 13 ships departed on September 2. All returned safely by October 1 with their fools gold.
1579
Simo Fernandes, a Portuguese in English service and John Walker scouted the Penobscot, River in Maine in separate voyages and made no reference of cities filled with gold, silver and pearls as previously noted.
1580
Basque activities in the Saint Lawrence estuary and River reached its peak between 1550-1580.
Michel Montaigne (1533-1592) was a propagator on the cultural theme "noble Savage'. Most of his material was however borrowed from others.
1581
Merchants from St. Malo, France began to trade for furs up the St. Lawrence River, in competition with the Basque traders.
1582
Vicente Gonzalez with fifty soldiers in two ships sailed to South Carolina to capture the French as reported being in Charleston Harbour. He visited every possible harbors along the coast but found no Frenchmen.
1583
Humphrey Gilbert (1537-1583), brother of Walter Raleigh, with 4 ships and 260 men, departed to establish a colony on Newfoundland. Within two days his largest ship had to return because a contagious disease broke out.
It is estimated that 25,000 ships have sunk off the coast of Nova Scotia since this date to the year 2000.
August 5: Humphrey Gilbert encountered 36 ships in the St. John's harbor of Newfoundland from Spain, Portugal, France and England. He demanded they pay tribute, like a common pirate, on the pretext that he claimed the southeast coast of New Found Land for England. He refused to recognize the previous claims of the Spanish, French, and Portuguese to Newfoundland. The arrogant Gilbert claims that the English establish St. John's Newfoundland this year, but what were 36 ships doing in the harbor? This site has likely been in use for decades. A storm resulted in the loss of more of his ships including his papers, his false claims and his very own life. The remainder of his fleet returned to England. He was considered a poor seaman. Others suggest he was incompetent. Some suggest some of his writings survived including his comments on St. John's; "very good and full of all sort of victuall, as fish both of the fresh water, and sea fish, deere, pheasants, partridges, swannes, and divers fowles'.
August 29: HMS Delight with master Richard Clarke, under command of Humphrey Gilbert in his frigate ordered Clarke to sail close to Sable Island. Clarke protested but gave into Gilbert's orders and ran aground, broke up and sank. Gilbert couldn't or didn't assist the sinking ship and most died. Sixteen men including Clarke escaped in a small boat and spent 7 days finally reaching Newfoundland and rescue by a Basque whaling ship. It is not known why Gilbert didn't pick up the surviving crew.
1584
Walter Raleigh sent an expedition under Philip Amadas and Arthur Barlowe to Roanhoke Island, Croatain Sound, North Carolina. The expedition reported that the natives are the most gentle, loving and faithful; void of all guile and treason. They lived after the manner of the Golden Age. Some believe Thomas Harriot (1560-1621) was included on this voyage of discovery.
1585
Ralph Lane (1530-1603) and 100 men established a colony on Roanoke Island, North Carolina. The colony however is short lived. Some suggest Ralph Lane (1530-1603) was a clumsy diplomat and aroused Indian hostility thereby dooming the colony. Ralph Lane explored northeast from Roanoke to the southern shore of Chesapeake Bay where he wintered. Humphrey Gilbert, an Englishman, lost 3 of 5 ships on Sable Island about this time.
Vicente Gonzalez sailed to to the mouth of the Sasquehanna River at the northern end of Chesapeake Bay looking for English who might be invading this Spanish territory.
Richard Grenville (1542-1591) with a Portuguese navigator named Simao Fernandes, sailed with 492 men and 108 colonists. Ralph Lane is governor of the colony. Thomas Hariot was assigned scientist/surveyor and John White named as artist/naturalist. England and Spain were at war and this counts for the high number of fighting men. They would build the short lived Roanoke Island colony.
April 9: Thomas Harriot (1560-1621) sailing for Walter Raleigh to the colony in the New Found Land of Virginia being unsuccessful in establishing a colony returned to Plymouth July 1586.
July 20: John Davis (Davys) (1550-1605) of Dartmouth, England contacted the Eskimos of Greenland, attempting to discover the descendants of the old Norse settlers. He called the Eastern Viking settlement the Land of Desolation. He then rounded Cape Farewell to visit the western Viking settlement. He then sailed to Baffin Island, then on to Cumberland Sound, but being blocked by ice returned to England.
July 22: Simao Fernandes ordered a change in plans and told the settlers to build on the remains of the old Ralph Lane's settlement where several cottages still stood. There were 89 men, 17 women and 11 children. Among the colonists were Ananias Dare and his pregnant wife and Eleanor White Dare, the governors daughter.
July 28: The Indians killed one of the colonists as he fished for crab. White attacked the mainland Indian village only to discover it contained Indians who were friendly to the English.
August 18: Eleanor Dare delivered a daughter, Virginia, believed, the first born European on record in America. A second child was born at Roanoke a few days later. This colony became known as the 'Lost Colony' as supplies could not be shipped because of war between Spain, France and England.
1586
John Davis (1550-1605) conducted a second voyage in search of the Northwest passage with four ships, returning to England October 6.
1587
John Davis (1550-1605) conducted a third voyage in search of the Northwest passage with three ships, returning to England September 15.
Another colony is established on Roanoke Island,
North Carolina with 117 men, women and children and by 1588, the colony
is deserted. Their whereabouts is unknown.
English colonists in Virginia reported that, because Indians died in
each town they passed and they themselves had not become sick, the Indians
believed the English must be spirits of the dead returning to the world.
1588
Marquis de la Roche was confirmed as Viceroy of Canada, Acadia, and adjoining lands. He was empowered to levy troops, declare war, build towns, promulgate laws, and execute them, to concede lands with Feudal privileges, and regulate Colonial trade.
Marquis de la Roche set sail with 48 convicts, men and women, from French prisons to Acadia. Fearing the convicts might desert he landed them on Sable Island, a barren sand-bank, 120 miles S.E. Acadia ( Nova Scotia). He then went to explore for an ideal colony location. Bad weather drove Marquis back to France, or so he claimed, abandoning his settlers to sure death. When the Marquis returned to France he was thrown into prison for this barbarous act. see 1593 & 1598
Vicente Gonzalez surveyed the coast off present New Jersey and he considered the James and Susquehanna River as possible passages to the Pacific.
June 24: Vicente Gonzalez sailed along the Outer Banks and found debris from English colonists but failed to find evidence of the English Roanoke Colony on Roanoke Island, he reported that the English had disappeared.
1590
Captain Georges sailed to the West but is turned back by ice.
Acadia, since 1524, referred to the east coast of America but, about this time, it was narrowed to refer to New Brunswick, Acadia ( Nova Scotia), Prince Edward Island, southeastern Quebec and eastern Maine. The term Acadian would evolve to refer to Francophone Maritimers, regardless of their cultural background which contained a high percentage of Metis.
August 17: An English ship finally reached Roanoke Island but found the colony deserted. There were no human remains to be found. The fate of the colonists is a mystery to this day. Some speculate they were all killed but a legend persists that they fled the coast and were eventually assimilated with an inland tribe, possibly the Lumbees.
1592
The name Bay Bulls, Newfoundland was in common usage from this date. It is considered the oldest settlement in North America.
1593
The King finally sent the Marquis de la Roche's pilot back to Acadia to determine the fait of the Sable Island colony. Of the 48 convicts only 12 survived. The limited food supply and lack of trees caused fights to break out resulting in a number of early deaths. A ship wreck provided lumber for crude shelters. No mention is made of any survivors of this ship wreck. Some domestic animals still ran wild believed to be from Baron de Lery landing of 1513. Others suggest the survivors were not recovered until 1603. See 1598.
1594
Martin Frobisher (1539-1594), a fortune hunter, a sea dog and, as some claimed, an infamous, outrageous pirate, is shot by a Spaniard.
1596
The Jesuit claim the English established a colony in the Great Gulf of America Sea, formally called Mocosa, they named the colony Virginia but were forced by the natives to abandon it in 1696.
January 1: The Chancellor an English ship commissioned to attack Spanish and French ships in the Gulf of Saint Lawrence sank off the coast of Cape Breton.
1597
John Davis (1550-1605), a navigator, observed a furious overfall (riptide) ebbing out of Hudson Strait. He returned to England with cod and sealskins to turn a tidy profit.
Apostolos Valerianos, a Greek, claimed to have discovered the North Sea; the name used to define the Arctic waters at this time.
The Spanish governor of Florida Gonzalo Mendez de Canzo sent Gaspar de Salas and two Franciscans, Pedro Fernandez de Choza and Francisco de Verascola to explore Georgia for a potential agricultural settlement. The reached Tama (Milledgeville, Georgia). They went up the Oconee River for one day before returning to Tama.
June 23: The English war ship Chancewell wrecked most likely near Ingonish or St. Annes Bay of Cape Breton Island.
1598
The French, in 1687, claimed that King Henri (IV) the Great commissioned Troilus de Mesgouez, Marquis de la Roche to confirm the French claim on the Bay of the North (Hudson Bay). He was appointed on January 12, 1598 as Lieutenant General of Canada, Newfoundland, Labrador and Norumbega (Maine).
Francisco Fernandez de Ecija made a series of voyages to Georgia and the Carolines to negotiate the release of a Franciscan held captive by the Natives after a revolt in 1597 against Guale (Georgia coastal) mission.
March: Marqu’s de la Roche Mesgouez attempted to establish a colony on Sable Island (Iie de Sable), Acadia and introduced the first hogs (pigs, swine) to Canada. Marqu collected 60 men and women from the prisons of Brittany and Normandy for his colony on Sable Island. They were vagabonds and beggars. Forty eight died the first winter and one was hanged for theft. Roche departed for St. John's, Newfoundland and returned to France, abandoning his settlement. They were forced to subsist on fish and wild cattle. see 1588 and 1593 for a different account. The 17 survivors are finally rescued in 1603.
(I)-Samuel de Champlain was born Brouage in Saintonge on the Bay of Biscay about 1567 and died December 25, 1635, Quebec. This year he voyaged to the West Indies and Central America as a Geographer. He also fought under Henry of Navarre (King Henry IV) in the latter stages of the French Wars of Religion (1593-1598). His lack of civic, political and military experience would cause vary serious problems, but most agree he was energetic and personable and devoted his life to New France to the best of his ability.
1599
(I)-Captain Francois Dupont Grave (1554-1619) called the Algonquin summer stopping place as Trois Rivieres.
(I)-Nicolas Marsolet de Saint-Aignan (1587-1677) is appointed by King Henry IV as drogman (interpreter) to La Nouvelle France.
Some historians consider this the end of the Renaissance (rebirth) period (1300-1600). A belief emerged during this period that humans can dominate over nature. They also learned the philosophy of war. The objectives of war according to E. Pocquet are:
, Steel others possessions,
. carry off others cattle,
. burn their houses,
. kill men,
.rape women.
November 22: (I)-Francois Grave du Pont ( Pontgrave) (1554-1629) and (I)-Pierre Chauvin de Tonnetuit d-1603 are appointed the position of Lieutenant General of Canada, Newfoundland and Norumbega (Nova Scotia/Maine), being forfeited by Troilus de Mesgouez, Marquis de la Roche.
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